Collecting Field Names in Calverton.

Lucinda Lourie describes the backgrounds and histories of field
names and how to find out more about them.

Britain's field names are disappearing; they are being replaced by
the numbers on the Ordnance Survey maps, which is all that the Ministry of
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food requires now on forms.

Common Ground, an environmental charity, is very
worried about this trend because names indicate that each field is distinctive.
They have brought out a pamphlet called A Manifesto for Fields, in
which this is the first point that they make. The Field-name Map on must be
considered as a Draft Map which puts together information taken from the
Women's Institute's Plan of Calverton 1965, conversations with the
farmers of Calverton, and from Keith Hope-Lang's Calverton Historical Index.

There are still gaps - are you able to fill them?

Some fields are known by more than one name; this will be
registered in the Historical Index, but the name shown on the fieldmap is that
provided by the landowner.

Field boundaries, however, have not been checked.

The panel below contains examples of field names all of which can
be found in the Parish of Calverton; each one tells you something about the
piece of land and differentiates one field from another. Some names are
probably very old, and some are obviously more recent in origin.

What needs doing now is to check these field names against a
parish Tithe Apportionment document at the County Records Office. Also we need
to consult Estate Deeds, Rent Records, and Estate Agents' particulars of
sale.

I would really appreciate some help with this, it promises to be a
fascinating project.